1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of automated pharmaceutical packaging machines. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an automated pharmaceutical package machine which fills a product package filling guide positioned above a solid pharmaceutical product package having a plurality of cavities corresponding to positions of the filling guide. The automatic filling machine includes a mechanism for vertically displacing the product package to be filled in toward the filling guide.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are currently a wide variety of automated pharmaceutical product packaging machines available. The majority of these machines are designed for packaging single pharmaceutical product into pharmaceutical package material. The machines typically transfer individual doses of solid pharmaceutical products into a cavity formed within a clear plastic cover member. Usually a plurality of cavities are formed in a single sheet of clear plastic material and its corresponding plurality of pharmaceutical products are inserted by the filling machine. Once the solid pharmaceutical members have been inserted into the cavities, a backing material is then adhesively applied to the clear plastic sheet to seal the solid pharmaceutical products within the cavities.
In one prior solid pharmaceutical packaging machine a product package filling guide is filled with solid pharmaceuticals and thereafter the solid pharmaceuticals are dropped into corresponding cavities of a solid pharmaceutical product package card. One of the shortcomings of this prior machine is in the positioning of the solid pharmaceutical product package card in relation to the filling guide during the filling process. It has been found that by placing the solid pharmaceutical product package too far beneath the product package filling guide, during the filling process, depending upon the size of the pill involved, the pill may bounce either out of the product package altogether or from a desired cavity into an adjacent product package cavity. This erroneous placement of patient dosages can result in inadvertently altering the dosing for a particular patient.
Alternatively, by having the product package too close to the product package filling guide during the filling process, when the pharmaceutical product guide member slides horizontally away from the product package template, pills that may be large and extend above a top plane of the product packaging material may be sheared off by the product package filling guide as the product package moves horizontally in relation to the template. The present inventors have overcome the shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art and identified a solution to these problems.
The present invention is directed to an automated pharmaceutical product packaging machine which includes a vertical displacement mechanism for adjusting the relative height of a solid pharmaceutical product package to be filled in relation to a product package filling guide. In accordance with the present invention, an automated filling machine fills a product package filling guide with desired solid pharmaceuticals. The filling guide is comprised of a plurality of plates having openings which correspond to product package cavities on a sheet of solid pharmaceutical packaging material. During the filling process, a machine selectively deposits a desired number of solid pharmaceuticals into the corresponding cavities or openings of an upper most initial filling guide plate and adjacent guide plate of the product package filling guide mechanism. Packaging material to be filled with the solid pharmaceuticals located within the product package filling guide is then positioned beneath the solid pharmaceutical product package filling guide members with a dropping guide member located therebetween.
A vertical displacing mechanism then drives the product packaging material upward towards a bottom surface of the lower most product package filling guide or dropping guide member. Thereafter, the middle solid pharmaceutical filling guide member or members are horizontally displaced in order to allow the solid pharmaceuticals contained in the openings in the filling guide to fall into corresponding cavities of the solid pharmaceutical product packaging material. The vertical displacement mechanism ensures that the individual solid pharmaceuticals will not bounce from one cavity of the packaging to another when they drop from the product package filling guide into the respective cavities in the product packaging material. Furthermore, the systems and methods of the present invention prevent the individual solid pharmaceutical doses from being damaged or sheared during the automated filling process because immediately after the package has been filled, the package material is dropped downward to eliminate the potential for shearing of pills.
Once the solid pharmaceuticals have been dropped into the desired cavities of the packaging material, the vertical displacement mechanism lowers the product packaging material containing the solid pharmaceutical members. Thereafter, the product packaging material traverses to an inspection station wherein an operator ensures that each of the cavities have the appropriate number of solid pharmaceutical members. Finally, the system traverses the solid pharmaceutical product package to an inspection station and then a sealing station where the package is sealed.